Taxmageddon sparks rising anxiety

[gilliam]

Defense contractors have slowed hiring. Tax advisers are warning firms not to count on favorite breaks. And hospitals are scouring their books for ways to cut costs.

Across the U.S. economy, anxiety is rising about the potential for widespread disruptions after the November election, when a lame-duck Congress will have barely two months to resolve a grinding standoff over taxes and spending.

The halls of the U.S. Capitol are already teeming with people warning of disaster if lawmakers fail to defuse a New Year’s budget bomb scheduled to raise taxes for every American taxpayer and slash spending at the Pentagon and most other federal agencies.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/busine...AQU_story.html

[estesbob]

Went through the same thing two years ago. Clients come in for tax planning any your only response is "I don't know."

What we will see is same as two years ago-people dumping Capital assets(like their businesses) for fear capital gains taxes will go up. People and companies delaying capital investment out of fear taxes are going up. One of the biggest drags on business is uncertainty.

[Luigi Daniele]

Depends on the election. People are sitting on over 1 trillion dollars, by some estimates.

The country could turn around ala Reagan in about a year and half or two.

Praying....

[Scott_Lafrance]

Originally Posted by Luigi Daniele

Depends on the election. People are sitting on over 1 trillion dollars, by some estimates.

The country could turn around ala Reagan in about a year and half or two.

Praying....

Not if Obama is reelected. Many of those people sitting on liquidity may move it offshore and expatriate.

[SamH]

Originally Posted by Scott_Lafrance

Not if Obama is reelected. Many of those people sitting on liquidity may move it offshore and expatriate.

Some of them may move off shore with their money.


http://finance.yahoo.com/news/facebo...re-a-pain.html


Couple this with the debt package deal that was supposed to carry the US to 2013 is now going to run out right in the middle of the US elections and people should be a bit afraid of might happen in the next 6-9 months.

Boehner says Republicans won't allow another increase in the nation's debt limit unless it's offset by spending cuts, and no tax increases.

"Allowing America to default on its debt would be irresponsible," he said.

The nation's debt has nearly tripled in the past decade, and now stands at $15.6 trillion.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has predicted the U.S. will hit its current borrowing limit of $16.4 trillion by the end of the year.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505267_1...it-inevitable/

Remember last year’s debt ceiling war between Congress and White House? Accusations of profligate spending against those of endangering the sovereign credit of the United States?

Then a compromise was reached that was supposed to take that issue out of the headlines until after the 2012 election.

Well, look again.

Damian Paletta at the Wall Street Journal is explaining that Barack Obama’s 2013 budget proposal notes that the White House expects “that U.S. government debt subject to the statutory borrowing limit on Sept. 30, 2012, will be $16.3339 trillion.”

So besides the fact that means every man, woman and child in the nation owes some unconscionable figure like $50,000, why else is it significant?

Join the campaign to let members of Congress know it’s time to just stop the borrowing.

The debt ceiling is set at $16.394 trillion, so Congress and the president in all likelihood will have to be discussing a debt ceiling increase in the very weeks leading up to the November election.


http://www.wnd.com/2012/02/debt-ceil...fore-election/

[Ridgerunner]

It's not only the tax uncertainty.

No business person can figure out what his healthcare costs are going to be in 2014. Nor can he figure out what his energy costs are going to be. Business people are used to predicting based on trendlines. But when you have an erratic and arbitrary power in Washington that sets the stage for abrupt changes, trendlines are of no help.

If Obama is re-elected, there is little doubt in my mind that the recession will not end and will likely get worse. Since he is at least as likely to win as not, nobody can figure out anything. So nobody hires and nobody invests. It's simple.

[SamH]

Originally Posted by Ridgerunner

.

If Obama is re-elected, there is little doubt in my mind that the recession will not end and will likely get worse. Since he is at least as likely to win as not, nobody can figure out anything. So nobody hires and nobody invests. It's simple.

Agreed. The same thing happened in the Depression. Year after year new regulations and taxes hammered businesses (some for only a short time as the Supreme Court invalidated them). As soon as a semblance of order was established everything would change again.